Carnival Cruise taps PMMA, STI for more Filipino crew

The Carnival Cruise Line (CCL), one of the biggest cruise line operators in the world, has forged partnerships with the Philippine Merchant Marine Academy (PMMA) and STI College to fill its vessels with Filipino hospitality staff and deck officers.

CCL president Christine Duffy, along with Bettina Deynes, chief human resource officer of Carnival Corporation, CCL’s parent company, were in the Philippines to highlight the partnerships with the two educational institutions.

The PMMA and STI have began offering scholarships to select candidates to fill culinary and hospitality positions through the latter and ship officers through the former.

Initially, around 40 scholarships are being offered to PMMA cadets and STI College students. Each scholar will be supported per academic year along with a uniform allowance.

The scholarship aims to further enhance training and education for seafarers while at the same time expanding Carnival’s presence in the Philippines. However, CCL clarified that its scholars will still have to apply for employment or an internship with them and they can also pursue other careers in the maritime industry.

On 30 July, Duffy attended the groundbreaking ceremony for the PMMA-Carnival Training Center building which coincided with the academy’s graduation ceremony.

The establishment of the training center aims to increase the number of competent and highly skilled cruise ship personnel for Carnival vessels.

There are a lot of graduates who are interested in either naval careers or coast guard. Up until recently, they weren’t really familiar with the cruise industry as a potential employer where they could have a career.

Meanwhile, the CCL’s partnership with STI Colleges led to the creation of a tailored curriculum that aligns with Carnival’s needs, values and standards. The curriculum involves the launch of state-of-the-art facilities that meet Carnival’s standards in culinary and hospitality training.

In the current landscape of the maritime industry which employs over 50,000 Filipino seafarers, Deynes said that some applicants are not yet familiar with the cruise industry and opt for a career with the military before transferring to a career in cargo vessels.

“There are a lot of graduates who are interested in either naval careers or coast guard. Up until recently, they weren’t really familiar with the cruise industry as a potential employer where they could have a career,” she said.

“We believe there is a drastic difference in working with a cargo ship versus a cruise so we’re really excited to provide those opportunities and what we have found is that they have welcomed the prospect of working in the cruise industry,” she added.

On the other hand, Duffy said CCL is open to accept seafarers who came from military service.

“People who want to do military service, maybe not their entire career but to start out then they may come into the cruise industry and have a role on a higher level than somebody that’s just coming in straight from graduation,” she said.

In their present-day operations, CCL has yet to have Filipinos as ship captains or chief engineers on board their cruise lines but Duffy is optimistic about the possibility of more Filipino crew members climbing their way up.

“Most of the ship officers in the cruise industry come from Europe, either they are from Southern European, Greeks, Italians, or from Scandinavian countries, so that’s what we see in this moment, diversity and opportunity,” she said.

Currently, CCL has 12,500 Filipino seafarers working on their ships and through its partnership with PMMA and STI, they hope to grow the numbers.

While CCL has no direct cruise operations in the Philippines yet, Duffy announced that one of their ships, the Carnival Panorama, will stop by Manila in October as part of its 25-day Southeast Asia and Hawaii Transpacific cruise which will begin in Singapore.

In 2023, the Philippines was recognized as the “best cruise destination in Asia” at the World Cruise Awards in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.